Drunk policeman held for harassment

A drunk policeman, obsessed with a married woman who he was allegedly stalking for over an year, was caught harassing and threatening his “lady love” at her house in south Delhi’s Pushp Vihar.

The police, wary of being criticised for being lax in cases of violence against women, booked the head constable, posted at the Paschim Vihar police station, under stringent sections of the law.

The head constable, Surajpal, has been suspended. According to a police officer, a departmental inquiry has been ordered against the 50-year-old, a resident of Vikaspuri. He was arrested by a team of the Saket police station.

“He was booked under Sections 451 (trespassing in order to commit an offence, which is punishable with imprisonment), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

The matter came to fore, the senior officer said, on Saturday afternoon after they received a call in the police control room that a woman was being harassed and threatened by a drunk man.

A police team reached the complainant’s house and learnt that her neighbours had caught the drunk who had forcibly entered her house when she was alone. On inquiry, the victim told police that the accused was a head constable who had been stalking and troubling her over the past year.

“Around 2pm on Saturday, the head constable came to the woman’s house and rang the door bell. He pushed her back into the house when she opened the door and tried to force himself on her,” said the officer.

“When she protested and asked him to leave, the policeman threatened to kill her. He forced her to sit beside him. This was when the woman raised an alarm and screamed for help,” said the officer, adding her neighbours came to rescue her and overpowered the head constable.